cooking anyone?

Been & done it Stickitoffee :o))

great ~ many thanks.

Hi Stickitoffee, just done the same, my wife would love it!!

im so pleased tiger ~ perhaps we can tempt you into the kitchen too?

I wrote a message to them this morning....do I need to send another?

I would also love a cooking section. who and how do i contact them?

I have left a message for them on the feed back section. I hope that was correct.

sorry, my fault for not explaining properly ~ i have copied Ajay's message from my original blog [I love this blog] about the cooking: just need to use the 'contact us' at the bottom:

Hello, if enough of you want a cooking/baking/recipe website we could put one up like we did with I Spy a Bird for bird watching. If you could let us know by sending in a Contact Us message (at the bottom) it would be really useful to get an idea of how popular it might be.

hope that explains it better than i could ~ and thanks rohima

Just to say Stickitoffee, i'm a semi-retired master-baker!
I try to stay away from kitchens these days, my wife's domain now!! She is a great cook, and i would not dare to tread in her kitchen. Lol.

wow! im very impressed tiger
i prefer the kitchen to myself so i quite understand how your wife feels!

The sign of a great cook Stickitoffee!!

really????
im glad to hear that ~ think i should put a notice on the kitchen door???

I'm only allowed in if i'm on the way to the garden!!

well thats a good enough reason ~ just looked at your profile ~ lovely photos on it.
oh yes and i see you are a lawn specialist ~ any advice on trying to keep a lawn made of grass when it is in the shade of very tall trees ~ that dont belong to us ~ it is now mostly moss ~ i dont mind cos at least it is a lovely green ~ but is there a way of improving the grass?

You can buy seed or turf that is " shade tolerant ", but this can be expensive. Best to try and keep the grass longer in the shade, this will help to keep the moss under control. Try to cut it regularly and at the same height at each cut.
A regular application of a moss controlling feed may also help.

Thanks for your comments, you flatter me!!!

great ~ thats very helpful ~ thank you!

Done it!

thanks meanie

there Ive done it too Sticki!

thanks pamg, will be great if we can have a cooking/recipe blog

I also asked for it not to be blue--- do you think thats cheeky.........

ps for once i love the ads !!! cupcakes.........

dont suppose anyone will mind ~ the bird site is blue so i imagine it will be a different colour?
cupcakes are delicious ~ i can imagine a cooking site would attract lots of adverts?

true-- all the sites i've been on have adverts -- fingers crossed then...

you are making me hungry now pamg ~ will have to get the mixing bowl out again!
but thats no hardship
cant have an entirely empty kitchen ~ always better with the baking things out ~ especially on a wet cold day

Well I've not been baking today but I've had a lamb stew cooking away in my oven....it's smelling very delicious and have just now put on a few potatoes to boil and mash and that's dinner sorted....the smells are so good we'll be eating as soon as the spuds are mashed. Yum, yum.

i can smell it from here ~ carrot and coriander soup on top of my stove ~ oh and poached pears in a tiny bit of ginger wine
am i making you hungry?

not with coriander--- what happened to good old parsley-- for me its taste swamps everything ( I add it to currys though )

Carrot & coriander soup sounds nice too, Sticki...never had poached pears though.

We've just eaten and the lamb stew was very tasty :) I've also been gifted some pea and ham soup made by Daisyco so that will certainly be enjoyed tomorrow. It's my most favourite soup and I've never made it...just tasted others' efforts (and my mom's as a child).

It sure is soup/stew weather now. The bread machine is doing double time as we have been eating homebread bread as well.

pea & ham soup is one of our favorites too, you really need a knuckle bone or hock to cook with the peas, my mum-in-law always added selery & carrots-- a meal in itself!, when we get this cookery site just think of all the lovely recipes, some of the old ones were the best!

i love my bread machine, and i love soup ~ one of the best is celery and bacon, i also like carrot and orange and roast pepper with tomato

Oh dear, a bread-machine!!!!!!!

Sorry Stickitoffee, that's a swear word in this house!
I would love to tell you how to bake bread but this message would self-destruct in 5 seconds!!!

Tiger....I have made bread many times from scratch but since getting the bread machine I've enjoyed the ease. I first got the bread machine when we had our newsagent's business as it was convenient to set the time and have it ready in the morning. It doesn't quite match up to homemade from scratch, I'll give you that...but a great improvement on store-bought.

I keep promising myself I'll make some cinnamon buns but I always seem to make too many and have no storage! I assume Tiger....you like to bake your own bread from scratch. If we are lucky enough to get a recipe/cooking section you can delight us with your tips and recipes for bread (minus the bread machine, of course!...lol).

oh of course ~ sorry tiger
i would dearly love to make bread properly but after several attempts and a material suitable to double as foundation bricks [well, not quite that bad] i gave up and used the bread maker
but if you know of a bread making course i could go on i would be more than happy to make my own!

Love to give you lots of tips with bread-making Whistonlass, but it would be a bit of an act of treason on my part!

I have been in the bakery trade now for 30 years. I could make bread with my eyes closed now!! I know that sounds terrible, but some things are sacred, hope you understand!!

I feel i have no right in asking for help in the garden now!

My mom and sister always made their own bread so that's how I learned to make it from scratch. A wood stove was what my mom had....mine is circotherm (electric) and my sister tried making bread in it once and said it wasn't a very good oven for bread making! Ugh!

I bet you could make bread with your eyes closed, Tiger. It is a good way to release tension/anger too...pounding the bread into submission! lol

Oh dear....do you mean gardening is in 2nd place now, Tiger? You go on asking for help....it's always available...no secrets there! :)

Sticki, i'm afraid i am right out of touch with all the latest baking courses, i did my training many, many years ago now!

I'm sure you could find some courses at your nearest college/uni.
To be honest, there is nothing like learning from your mistakes, bread-making is an art and can take years to master!!

Thank you Whistonlass. Believe me no 2 ovens are the same. You will never get a proper crusty loaf from a domestic oven- oops, there i go, giving some trade secrets away Lol!!!

I made naan breads once - they were brilliant, but such a mess in the kitchen!

Meanie, i'm not allowed in my wife's kitchen now! Bakers do tend to throw the flour around rather alot!

Your wifes kitchen!!!!
It's my kitchen, although she's allowed in to do me a proper breakfast on a Sunday!

i throw the flour around ~ but thats better than plates? naan sounds great ~ would love to make that.
its the crusty loaf i like ~ but id better not give up just cos my oven is not the same as commercial
i loved watching that great british baking programme ~ the baker was tough but i liked him ~ could have learned lots
i think my biggest mistake was being too impatient for the yeast to be ready ~ put it in too early and then the bread was too dense!! not sure if it was me or the bread was most dense!

Steady, you are giving my wife some bad ideas Meanie!!!!

tiger and meanie you are making me laugh ~ its like watching a tennis match between you ! not sure what the score is now tho

You can get reasonable results from your own oven Sticki, don't give up!

There are many factors to consider, but i won't bore you all too much.

Maybe when i'm back in the bakery i could take some photos to show you what a proper loaf looks like, Lol!

I'm the better cook - simple as that!
I do make my own pizza bases too. It's worth the effort.

Tiger - I wouldn't even try to match anyone on bread. The local butchers wife bakes bread - it's out of this world, but only fit for toast after a day. Once you've picked up one of her loafs and put butter on it whilst it's still warm, there's no point in trying to emulate a skilled baker!

Better than my beloved that is - important to clarify that statement!

In my experience, a " cook " can never be a baker and a " baker " can never be a cook, it's one or the other!

Perhaps I should get her interested in baking!
A little unfair that really - she's not a bad cook, but I am better.

interesting!
yes i would love to see the photos please.
i do make my own pizza bases ~ love making pizza, dont like shop bought ~ but real italian pizzas beside an italian lake take some beating

I thought i'd reached the pinnacle of my career when i was decorating wedding cakes. Even now there is nothing more pleasing to a baker than producing a lovely loaf! Just can't explain that one, just ask any true baker.

Stickitoffee - when I lived in Amsterdam the pizzeria around the corner was owned by a pukka Italian family. It was fantastic! Still try to get there once a year if I can.

Blimey Sticki, if we keep this up, your baking-sorry, cooking site stands every chance of becoming a reality!!!

I don't mind the bread machine type and I do get a crusty top (I always put some butter on a bit of waxed paper and lightly rub the top of the loaf). What is a nuisance is the shape of the loaf and the hole from the mixer at the bottom.

What about all the fuss with cupcakes these days? And boy do they charge for them too! And I've never found them difficult to make, although some of the decoration is very elaborate/intricate.

I made my own wedding cake and didn't know much about baking then. Didn't cover it with marzipan first before icing and on the day of our wedding my stepmom and myself were frantically trying to cover all the brown spots where the cake colour had leaked through. Lesson learned! Cake was tasty though :)

I do a pretty reasonable sticky lemon cake Whistonlass. But, instead of lemon, try a sticky pink grapefruit cake! My favourite, but not everyones cup of tea.

you will never guess what im doing now tiger ~ trying [its very trying] to make sugar paste tulips for my sisters 50th birthday cake!!!???
i can understand the lovely loaf ~ have been known to take a photo of bread i have made ~ it looks nice, just isnt quite the texture it needs to be1

had i better make a comment on gardening before i get thrown off this site?

The proof is always in the eating!!

With the weather at the moment, i'm sure this site be it gardening or cooking is a great source, or should that be [ sauce ] of entertainment!!!

very good ~ quite agree

meanie, ive never been to amsterdam ~ would love to see the bulbs tho ~ i gather lincolnshire doesnt do a bulb show any more???
you never know perhaps GoY could do a trip to the bulb fields ~ and the pizzeria???

Have added my name.......very passionate about food, cooking it, or eating it, as a family we are great foodies.

and me dottydaisy ~ and became even more so when i started working for a very nice supermarket!!

I sometimes use the breadmaker just on the dough setting and then make cobs or a bloomer, it just saves the kneading...and looks homemade!!

Get over there Stickitoffee, and leave plenty of space for all the bulbs you'll be bringing back!

i think i will meanie, i would love to go ~ will need awful lot of space on camera memory cos think i would take more than a few pictures!
i must try that out pam ~ [with apologies to tiger] i havent done it yet but would like to
also want to try making brioche and others